The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) closed out one of the most successful years in its history with a strong finish at the Amherst tournament. Russell Potter & Alex Jubb made semifinals, Sean Leonard & Henry Phipps made quarterfinals, and Phipps qualified for Nationals in the last weekend of the regular season, breaking last year’s team record for qualifications.

Last year, RUDU set a team record with seven qualifications for Nationals, sending five full teams. This year, Rutgers eclipsed that mark with eight quals, behind only Yale (11) and Harvard (9). Rutgers also finished the year ranked 5th, less than 4 points behind rival Johns Hopkins for 4th. Rutgers has finished one rank ahead of Hopkins in the final national standings in two of the previous three seasons.

The Rutgers debaters qualified for Nationals are Potter, Leonard, Phipps, Maingi, Ashley Novak, Arbi Llaveshi, Rachel Moon, and Nick Hansen. All but Novak will be attending the National Championships as she elected to end her debating career at the Princeton tournament in March. The seven qualified debaters will be joined by three teammates to comprise the five Rutgers teams representing the university at Nationals. The National Championships this year will be held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia from April 18-20, 2014. RUDU is now beginning its last week of extensive preparation for the Championships, where Novak and Chris Bergman finished 9th overall last year.

Novak finished 7th Speaker of the Year (SOTY), the first time a Rutgers debater has ever finished in the top ten of those standings at year’s end. Everyone finishing ahead of her is an Ivy League student with the exception of one from Brandeis who finished tied for 5th. She was also the second-ranked female speaker in the league, behind Brown’s Jean McCabe, who finished 3rd in the overall SOTY standings. They were joined by Swarthmore’s Jodie Goodman and Brandeis’ Shira Almeleh in marking the most women in the top ten of SOTY since the 2001-2002 season, when half the top ten were female.

The national top five teams on the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) circuit were unchanged from last year, though the rankings reshuffled a bit. This year, Rutgers was fifth behind Yale, Harvard, Brandeis, and Johns Hopkins. Last season, Yale was also top, Brandeis second, Rutgers third, Johns Hopkins fourth, and Harvard fifth. Despite finishing 5th this season, Rutgers actually set a team record for rankings points in the College of the Year (COTY) standings, with 257.5 edging last year’s mark of 257.

Here are the final Top 25 rankings for the APDA in 2013-2014:

Rank

College/University

Points

1

Yale University

558.75

2

Harvard University

343

3

Brandeis University

332.5

4

Johns Hopkins University

261.25

5

Rutgers University

257.5

6

Brown University

245.5

7

Columbia University

196.5

8

George Washington University

196

9

Bates College

193.25

10

American University

157.5

11

College of William and Mary

153.5

12

Princeton University

147.5

13

Swarthmore College

142

14

Boston University

50

15

University of Maryland

35

16

University of Chicago

27

17

Stanford University

16

18

Georgetown University

10

19

Northeastern University

8

19

Providence College

8

21

Tufts University

7

22

New York University

6

22

Middlebury College

6

22

University of Pittsburgh

6

25

Moody Bible Institute

4

Rutgers is one of just three public institutions in this year’s top 25, ahead of #11 William & Mary and #15 Maryland. Rutgers finished ahead of New Jersey rival Princeton for the fourth straight year.